Barcelona triumphs over PSG in thrilling match, Madrid maintains lead over Dortmund
Andreas Christensen came off the bench to head in the winning goal as Barcelona won 3-2 away to Paris Saint-Germain in a remarkable first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie on Wednesday, April 10. Raphinha had earlier scored twice for the Catalans at the Parc des Princes, slotting in the opener late in the first half and then volleying in an equalizer to make it 2-2 just after the hour mark.
In between, PSG had turned the game around as they awoke from a poor first-half display by starting in electrifying fashion after the restart with two goals in six minutes, neither coming from Kylian Mbappé. Ousmane Dembélé struck against his old club, and Vitinha briefly put the French giants in front, only for Barcelona to recover stunningly to take control of the tie. Christensen’s goal, which came just after he had been introduced as a substitute on his 28th birthday, ended PSG’s 27-game unbeaten run, giving Barca a lead to defend at home in the return next Tuesday.
Appearing in the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time in four years and since the departure of Lionel Messi, Barcelona grew into this game and almost went ahead on 20 minutes.
That second leg will be played at Montjuic, the Catalan club’s temporary home, rather than Camp Nou, the scene of Barcelona’s incredible 6-1 win over PSG in 2017 and a lethal Mbappé hat-trick in a 2021 meeting of the teams.
The Parisians were widely seen as the favorites coming into this tie, in large part thanks to the presence of Mbappé and Dembélé in attack. But Paris struggled to live up to it, with Mbappé for once unable to deliver in a big game.
Madrid holding on
The same evening, Atletico Madrid moved closer to returning to the Champions League semifinals with a 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund at the Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid. Rodrigo De Paul and Samuel Lino’s first-half goals gave Diego Simeone’s side a commanding lead but Sebastien Haller pulled one back to give the German side a foothold in the tie ahead of next week’s return in Dortmund. Dortmund twice hit the woodwork in the final minutes.
Atletico hasn’t made it to the last four since 2017, when it lost to city rival Real Madrid. The Spanish club has won three of its last six quarterfinals. Atletico has won 29 of its last 32 home games across all tournaments. It was Simeone’s 50th Champions League win. The result kept Atletico unbeaten in 18 knockout-round games at home in the Champions League – with its last defeat coming against Ajax in the quarterfinals in 1997.
Despite the visitors finding a foothold in the game, Atletico held on by the skin of their teeth and Dortmund fell to their first away defeat in four months. Simeone was able to celebrate his 50th Champions League victory as a coach, becoming the ninth man to achieve the feat. One neither Simeone nor Atletico have yet achieved is conquering the Champions League, but this win is a shaky step towards the semi-finals.
Dortmund has won only one of its last 11 away matches in the knockout stages of the Champions League. The 1997 European champion, is looking to return to the semifinals for the first time since 2012-13 when it lost the final to fellow German club Bayern Munich. The second leg will be played next Tuesday in Germany.
